Amid the heated rhetoric about gay marriage comes the absurd and dangerous claim that God needs to change with the times. New York Times columnist Frank Bruni wrote that Christians should rightly bow to “the enlightenments of modernity.” Speaking of reproductive rights, Hillary Clinton said deep-seated religious beliefs “have to be changed.”

Nothing is more at odds with the First Amendment than arguing that God has to bow to modernity. The First Amendment affirms the free exercise of religion, whether ancient or modern.

Legal scholar Richard Epstein points out that “the law is a blunt instrument that lurches first too far in one direction and then too far in the other.” Unfortunately that’s happening with some advocates of gay marriage, pressing for a larger legal change than necessary. There is room to accommodate same-sex marriage and its legal benefits without making Christians limit their free exercise of religion.

This new liberal orthodoxy—that can tolerate no dissent (even from God)—poses a real danger to religious freedom.